U.S. Warship, Sailing Near Chinese-Claimed Island, Challenges Beijing

The USS William P. Lawrence guided-missile destroyer awaits refueling from a tanker on Jan. 20 in Coronado, Calif. The William P. Lawrence on Tuesday navigated to within 12 nautical miles of a land feature in the South China Sea known as Fiery Cross Reef.
Photo:
Associated Press

The Pentagon sent a warship through the South China Sea on Tuesday in another operation meant to counter China’s territorial claims to artificial islands there, as relations between the two nations grow increasingly strained over the international dispute. As WSJ’s Gordon Lubold reports:

A guided-missile destroyer, the U.S.S. William P. Lawrence, navigated to within 12 nautical miles of a land feature in the South China Sea known as Fiery Cross Reef, according to a senior defense official.

Fiery Cross consists of approximately 700 acres of largely dredged materials from the ocean floor, to which China and other nations lay claim. In recent years, China has built a 10,000 foot runway, opened a port and built other military facilities on the island.

Tuesday’s operation marked the third time in less than a year that the U.S. has conducted so-called freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea in an effort to challenge what the U.S. sees as the excessive maritime claims of China and other nations to the islands there.

The destroyer took one pass past the island in an operation the defense official described as routine. Typically, Chinese military or civilian officials attempt to make radio contact with U.S. Navy ships to tell crews to keep their ships out of what they consider to be Chinese territorial waters. The official didn’t provide any additional detail of Tuesday’s operation.